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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27364399">she's the beast in my bones</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/persephonie/pseuds/persephonie'>persephonie</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Blood of Zeus (Cartoon)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Character Study, Favoritism, Gen, Jealousy, Loneliness, Multi, References to Ancient Greek Religion &amp; Lore</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 16:27:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,745</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27364399</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/persephonie/pseuds/persephonie</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ares is his mother’s son after all, and as Zeus likes to remind him, he is the sum of her worst parts: her unforgiving rage, her thirst for conflict and, most wicked of all, her <i>jealousy</i>.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>79</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>she's the beast in my bones</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Where the rest of Zeus’ children would often play the role of the pawn in their father’s many liaisons, Ares always fancied himself the knight.</p><p>He’d be lying if he said he didn’t revel in the title at least a little bit. Ares is well aware of the reputation he’d earned over the centuries as the god of war. Time and again he would arrive on Mount Olympus smug from a fresh victory, where thousands of mortals had been slaughtered. (His last triumph was the Peloponnesian War, and Athena didn’t speak to him for two decades after.)</p><p>“It is what the Fates have decided,” he’d shrugged helplessly, but the other gods knew what he really meant was, <em>All in a day’s work.</em></p><p>So, when a new threat began to loom over Earth—one for which the gods are directly responsible—it is to no one’s surprise that Ares is the first to know.</p><p>What had been surprising, though, is that he sought his father first for counsel. Everyone knows that Ares is his mother’s darling; between Hephaestus and the six others, Ares seems to be her only hope. He thinks he is fortunate to earn Hera’s favour, something that not one of his siblings have done. He thinks it is fortunate that he was not born a bastard.</p><p><em>Anyone can be a bastard of the king of the gods, but remember you are first and foremost a son of the queen</em>, Hera would often tell him. And when one is often told something like that, it becomes difficult not to let it get to their head.</p><p> </p><p>Ares finds Zeus at the foot of a mountain outside a lowly city in Greece, in one of his many disguises he has come to learn of. He’s surprised to see Ares. (No, he’s surprised that it is <em>Ares</em> he sees, instead of his other sons—his <em>bastards—</em>whom he’d have much preferred.) Ares is not as intelligent as his older sister, but he’s not stupid; he can gather who it is that resides here on the outskirts, and why Zeus chooses to visit the place in disguise, and why the entire polis is veiled by dark clouds all through the year.</p><p>What he <em>doesn’t</em> understand is why Zeus—Zeus who rules over Mount Olympus, and commands the skies, and led the war against the Titans and their successors—bothers at all with a mortal such as this one. Why had he come down here so frequently in the last eighteen years? He hadn’t cared about his other mortal bastards; not until they’d at least made a name for themselves, or perished in battle and earned their place in Elysium. And from the looks of it, this particular village boy’s chance of becoming a hero is slim to none.</p><p>Only when Zeus affirms his faith in this mortal, this <em>Heron</em>, that Ares finally sees. But still he doesn’t understand.</p><p>“You <em>care</em> for him,” Ares says, his shock not quite masking his disgust.</p><p>“Do you take me for a fool?” Zeus is defensive in the face of humiliation, but Ares has observed his father long enough to know when he is lying.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>Ares is jealous. There’s really no other way to describe it.</p><p>He is not new to the feeling. He is his mother’s son after all, and as Zeus likes to remind him, he is the sum of her worst parts: her unforgiving rage, her thirst for conflict and, most wicked of all, her <em>jealousy</em>.</p><p>In the halls of Mount Olympus, Ares is lonelier than he would ever truly admit. There is no doubt of his own greatness, of course. But as the wild, vicious son of Hera, the swine of the gods, the black sheep; to say he is disliked by the others is an understatement. Over the centuries he’d watched with fascination as his half-siblings bonded over the sacrifices they’d made to claim their place on Mount Olympus, and the tribulations their mothers had faced at the hands of Hera. Needless to say, Ares would never be able to empathise.</p><p>They would never have the favour of Hera as he does, and in all this time they’d never truly been loved by Zeus either. But they’d had each other. And Ares had always wondered what that felt like.</p><p>In all his life he has only known Hera’s company. She holds him in high enough regard as the queen of the gods can, and always provided support for the battlefields that he presided over, except when certain deviations took over. (She wouldn’t let him forget about how he’d switched sides so swiftly during the Trojan War for the sensual goddess that had him in her grasp, heliotrope hair and generous curves and all.)</p><p>But for this, his father’s betrayal, Ares does not hesitate to stand with his mother.</p><p>“My son,” Hera murmurs tenderly, “my prince. I knew I could count on you. Tell me, is it out of love that you stand with me?”</p><p>Ares is not an affectionate god. He doesn’t express his feelings outwardly, except for the rare occasion—and once again Aphrodite flashes through his mind—so he responds in the way he knows how, the way only his mother can cherish.</p><p>He kneels.</p><p>Hera looks pleased. “Love is overrated anyway, dear. Loyalty is much harder to come by these days.”</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>Ares is jealous because he is proud. It is a trait that both his parents carry, so it’s only logical that his own would be twice as great. In the beginning Ares had arrogantly thought that of all the gods, he could win Zeus’ favour first. It was a challenge he’d taken upon himself; after all, he was one of Zeus’ only legitimate children, and he was convinced that he was the best of them.</p><p>But Zeus is a protector of mankind, and Ares has an affinity with destruction. While his sister—the true favourite of Zeus—stands for the strategic aspect of war, he embodies the bloodiness of it. Athena guides man at the helm, while Ares anticipates the way they are driven mad from it, exposing their flaws and weaknesses. He thrives on their strife and for that Zeus quickly made it clear that he would never be able to accept him.</p><p>Yet it doesn’t stop Ares from seeking his counsel for every war the mortals find themselves in. This time it is the Demons against mankind, so Ares thinks he can earn his father’s favour by siding with the humans.</p><p>In comes Heron. Plain but perfect Heron, with the same cerulean eyes as his father and a temperament that can challenge his own. After he had undergone the proper training, Ares can see to a slight extent why Zeus has chosen him as his latest hero. The boy is tenacious, and would fight to his death. He seems indifferent about his own mortality, and that callous disregard in battle is almost admirable in Ares’ eyes. <em>Almost.</em></p><p>Hera, too, prepares for battle. On her side of the schism, Ares has the company of the Demon Seraphim, whose rage is almost offensively greater than his. A true freak of nature, a stunning opposite of his divine brother, an unpredictable whirlwind of chaos.</p><p>Ares decides that he likes him better.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>Funnily enough, even as the Giants wreak havoc on Mount Olympus, dead set on destroying every god in sight, at no point does Ares think that <em>perhaps</em> Hera has gone too far.</p><p>Not even as he’s pinning Hermes down on the beach with his war hammer, and his mother pries off the armour from messenger-god, and Ares all but beats him to a pulp. Or even as he strikes Apollo with the force of Typhon himself, and Ares tosses his brother’s limp form into the sea; not even then does the thought of <em>gone too far</em> cross his mind.</p><p>For as long as the war rages on, Ares spins out the fighting on the battlefield. This is what essentially sets him apart from his half-siblings; while they are champions, for them it means the fighting ends. But Ares is a warrior, an eternal fighter; as soon as this war is over, he would be in immediate pursuit of the next one. Such is his fate as the god of war.</p><p> </p><p>“You are every bit your mother,” Zeus sneers at him at some point mid-battle.</p><p>“You’re wrong,” Ares retorts, “I am not as brave as her. Unfortunately, father, I believe that’s something <em>we</em> have in common.”</p><p>Zeus looks as though he’s been slapped tight across his face. Ares relishes his brief moment of glory.</p><p>“This is not bravery,” Zeus mutters, his anger transforming into fear as he sees the crazed Hera in the eyes of his son. “This is madness. Please, son. Tell your mother to stop all this. She listens to you, does she not?”</p><p>That’s when Ares senses the desperation in Zeus’ words, and it truly disgusts him. Here, now, he decides to play the part of the victim, the caring father; all because he <em>knows</em> Hera’s rage is greater than even him. He is on the brink of giving up the fight, and Ares cannot—<em>will not</em>—allow that. He continues to provoke Zeus.</p><p>“This was <em>your</em> doing, father!” Ares’ eyes glow a deeper red. “Or have you forgotten already? We must all face the consequences of our actions. You said so yourself.”</p><p>“Not at the expense of everything.” Zeus continues to speak in carefully measured tones. “She is putting all of us <em>and</em> Mount Olympus at stake. Do you understand?”</p><p>Ares does, ultimately.</p><p>By then it’s too late; with a sudden change in the sky and an explosion so great it carries down to Hades, Zeus is swept into oblivion.</p><p>Hera follows suit, vanishing into the dense thicket by the battlefield, now bloodstained and ruined and unrecognisable as the remains of god, man and Demon mingle. It seems that Ares is the only one who mourns his mother, mostly because she is not dead. But she is not there.</p><p> </p><p>A week later, Ares thinks it will be a while before he can adjust to this quieter, more peaceful Mount Olympus, but he realises soon enough that he doesn’t have to.</p><p>For Hades has gained a new soul in the Underworld, just as stubborn as he had been in his living form. A disturbance stirs the quiet almost too quickly; the smell of conflict is lush in the air.</p><p>And Ares smiles.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hello! Thought I’d drop a little note. You best believe I watched the first season of Blood of Zeus more than once. I really enjoyed it, and hope to the gods we get a <i>bangin’</i> second season. I particularly love the character design of the gods, my favourite being Hermes (ahem).</p><p>Buuuut since my uni days of being a little more than obsessed with Greek mythology, I have a soft spot for Ares in my heart, and I’ve always wanted to write him. I was intrigued by how they portrayed him in the series, brutal yet cowardly; a mama’s boy, if you will. I like how they had him aligned with Hera from the get-go, and I decided to explore that with this fic, with a bit of my own take on a character study. (In fact, I’m pretty sure this is 90% AU/lore because we got next to nothing on Ares in the show lol.) Hope to see more in S2 though—fingers crossed!</p><p>Title taken from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kTd-orXaLw">“Horns” by Bryce Fox.</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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